I’m planning a trip to China in just a few days. For various reasons, I needed to pull this together very quickly, so I didn’t have as much time for research as I would have liked. I ended up booking a private tour for my friend and me through China Tibet Adventure Tours, located in China.
Mr. Chen Xiaojun
China Tibet Adventure Tour (CTAT)
Chengdu Office - Sichuan New Oriental International Travel Co., Ltd. (SNOIT)
License No.: L-SC-GJ00022
Floor 7 Rainbow Mansion
No.12 Jinli Zhonglu
610066 Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Tel: 0086-28-66018872 / 66018892
Fax: 0086-28-66018800
Mr. Xiaojun (or Mr. Chen?) has been very attentive and good answering our questions, but he just told me that I should pay the balance of the tour in cash, not travelers’ checks, when we meet the tour guide at the airport. That’s making me extremely anxious. I’ve written to the consul general in Chendu, but I’m not sure I’ll get a response in time. I’ve also asked Mr. Xiaojun to provide references, and I should hear his response to that today. Is there any way to check the legitimacy of this tour company or otherwise protect myself from being ripped off … or worse? What about the license number? Is there some way to verify that?
It’s “Mr Chen”. (Chinese names are usually usually Family name of 1 syllable, followed by a given name of 2 syllables).
I went to Tibet via a similar tour operator in Chengdu in 2005, “Sim’s Cozy Guesthouse”, and had no problem.
Your operator’s site and its contents look absolutely fine, though my opinion is no guarantee, but if the dude was a fraudster, putting a fraudulent Chinese government license number on a website would lead to him being imprisoned pretty quickly.
If you’re concerned, don’t carry the cash with you, but take travellers’ checks instead, then when you’re happy, cash them in a bank to give to him - there are plenty of modern banks in Chengdu. I’d imagine the cash part is tax avoidance rather than trying to rip you off, which doesn’t necessarily indicate bad faith, as 99% of businesses do it.
I can personally vouch for Sim here, who is an honourable, honest and decent man, who is originally from Singapore. It may be a stretch, but you could try emailing him for his opinion? Also, Sim has a handy (albeit confusing) guide to the current situation regarding foreign travel into Tibet here. Your tour operator should take care of this.
I just googled the license number, and found it on this site, which seems to be a Chinese government site. According to Google Translate, the license pertains to:
Which looks good for you. Perhaps someone with Chinese can verify?
I think you’ll be fine. And Tibet will blow your mind. The Potala Palace alone is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been.
Thanks jjimm, I feel a bit better. Tax evasion I’m familiar with from my experiences in Viet Nam. How should I handle money then? Bring travelers’ checks, or rely on credit cards and ATMs?
If you are going to Tibet I’m pretty sure that you have to be part of a tour. If you are just going around China, I’d recommend against going on a tour. Often times they will take you around to crappy museums, or “museums” which are really just glorified gift shops. I think it’s much better to just go on your own, or rent a car and driver for the day to take you where you need to go.
As far as I know there are only ATMs in Lhasa and Shigatse - and even then, they are few and far between. China is full of them, but for Tibet carry travellers’ checks, and load up with cash in the cities. It’s difficult to describe how remote and undeveloped the rest of Tibet is. There’s no internet beyond Shigatse either.
In Chengdu, however, you can’t move for ATMs. I used ATMs all over China to access my account in Ireland and had no problems.
treis, I agree with your advice - Chinese tourism is still in its infancy and the organised tours often suck. Regarding Tibet, you officially have to go with a tour group, but in my case it was a virtual one: I never met my fellow travellers, and once we got to Lhasa we were on our own to do what we wanted (within sensible limits, of course). That said, we booked a jeep via the official tourism service to get to Everest, but apart from the driver, it was just us.
In Viet Nam, I would never go for more than a day tour, but I don’t speak Chinese so I feel better being taken care of like this. On a tangent, what would be a reasonable tip for our guide for the two week tour? (That is assuming he doesn’t steal our cash and leave us bleeding in a ditch somewhere. In that case, I’d be inclined to be stingy.)
Greg Charles, allow me a little self-promotion: feel free to delve into my brilliantly written travelogue covering our journey in Tibet. You could even print it out for entertaining reading on the train.
When my tailor came to my hotel room to drop off my suit and collect payment, I was a little nervous until he took my money, and added it to the sackful he already had. Imagine a wad of 500 yuan (~$65) notes, folded in half, so thick you can barely hold it in one hand. Lawrence had one of those in each pocket of his jacket. Cash is definitely the norm in China, which caught me out a bit because I hadn’t taken that much and foreigners are only allowed to get their hands on 2500RMB/day - you might want to look out for that.
I have the feeling this might be archaic. I got a hell of a lot more cash out than that when I was in Beijing in '05. However, there was a limitation on the ATM delivery amount. That said, 2,500 RMB could last weeks!
I’ve never experienced the 2500 RMB limit on foreigners. This is the limit for withdrawal from an ATM, but one can simply go to another ATM and get more.
Oh, we tipped our Everest driver about US$20 (after a week) and he nearly fell over. I think it might have been too much. Also, I suspect that he had to pay for gas out of his own salary, as every time we were going downhill he cut the engine. Which, in the Himalayas, is rather “exciting”.
When I was in Nepal we tipped one of our sherpas US$10 and he burst into tears…
I bought my flat in cash. Imagine a meter long stack of $10 bills…
Greg Charles, as pointed out earlier, cash is standard. So too is an official receipt. It should be okay. Ask for an official receipt. You probably won’t recognize what makes it official or not, but for the handwritten ones on a form, you also get a ink pad type stamp. The modern ones have a quick pick style scratch and win section(and you can scratch and win)
You can use ATM’s all over most of china. Bets are off when you go to Lhasa. Withdrawl limit IIRC is rmb5000/day or about $700. You can only take out up to rmb2500 per transaction.
What’s your tour route? If you’re going overland from Chengdu, I’ve been about 1,000km of the way (out to Ganzi and Litang) but my info is 20 years out of date.
It’s not that bad any more: there’s an ATM at the main Bank of China on the Lingkor, next to the Potala, that worked for me, and one due north of Barkhor Square, on Beijing Donglu, near the Snowland Hotel.
Otherwise, the hotels will cash travellers’ checks, but don’t even think about trying further east than Shigatse - I don’t think they’d even know what a traveller’s check was! Take cash.
Yes…do not tip in China unless a trusted Chinese person has told you in advance that you must.
Tipping is not common. I had a Chauffeur drive 2 hours to pick me up, 2 hours to drive me to the airport in Beijing to get my parents, and 2 hours back to my home, and we paid him no tip at all. The fixed rate paid for it all.
Yes - I tried to tip a Beijing taxi driver, and he gave me the money back. I motioned “for you” and tried to return it, but he looked uncomfortable and refused. I guess they might see it as a case of “I don’t need your charity”.
I’ve yet to meet a Chinese person that turns down a tip. Now let me clarify. First, taxi drivers are often confused that you are trying to overpay, and don’t want to take advantage of your ignornant white ass. If you tell 'em in Chinese you want to tip, then in every case I’ve ever encountered in 20 years, you have a happy taxi driver.
The Chinese are not against accepting gratuities. The thing is the culture is one of constantly trying to get a discount even after the deal is done and the bill presented, that it’s considered pretty “out there” to give a tip. Usually tips, especially to waitstaff, are either from foreigners that don’t understand the culture, guys trying to show off how much money they have, or guys trying to impress a woman into bed.
There are still some state owned enterprises where the rules clearly state in Maoist terms that “no tips accepted” and these people could get into trouble for accepting a tip. But generally speaking most service people are very pleasantly surprised to get a tip. I can’t remember anyone feeling “insulted” to get a tip.
All that said, there is no real tipping culture in China, so don’t feel like you need to.
I personally often round up the taxi fare because I don’t like the change. If I rent a taxi for the day or something, I usually don’t tip because I tipped already by not bargaining so hard. Or if someone really does a great job, I do tip. So, the real answer is “it depends.”
